A Study On The Intervention Of Case Work In The Spiritual Consolation Of The Elderly Living Alone In Cities

With the further development of modernization,the ageing process is accelerating and the trend towards old age is becoming more pronounced,with the group of elderly people living alone gradually expanding.The draft amendment to the 2012 Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly for the first time specifies the content of "spiritual comfort",stipulating that family members shall care for the spiritual needs of the elderly and shall not neglect or negligent of the elderly.According to the Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly,the complete obligation to provide for the elderly includes three aspects:financial support,living care and spiritual comfort.Spiritual comfort refers to the satisfaction of the spiritual,emotional and psychological needs of the elderly,which can exist independently or be permeated by economic support and living care.Based on the need for spiritual comfort for the elderly living alone in urban areas,this paper focuses on the elderly aged over 80 years old living alone as the target group.A typical elderly person in community Y of city X was selected as a case study to provide one-to-one professional services.The client’s emotional support needs,interpersonal needs,self-esteem needs and respect needs could not be met.Combining the social support theory and the ecosystem theory,the programme focuses on the client’s own self,family,neighborhood and community to help the client: improve negative attitudes and affirm self-worth;gain emotional support within the family,build two-way communication channels with the children,respect and tolerate each other;reconstruct neighborhood relationships and promote the client’s active social awareness;link up with effective resources in the community;and develop a practical eightsession service plan.At the end of the intervention,a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was used to evaluate the process and the effectiveness of the service.The evaluation showed that the client had made positive changes in terms of emotional improvement,selfperception,family emotional support and social interaction.The evaluation revealed positive changes in the client’s mood,self-perception,family emotional support and social interactions.Finally,a conclusion was made and recommendations were made for social work interventions in the spiritual comfort of elderly people living alone in urban areas,providing ideas for future social work interventions in the spiritual comfort of the elderly.